Family Dollar standoff ends with deaths of two

WILLARD — The hostage who was shot in the head Wednesday during a standoff at Family Dollar, 403 Walton St., has died as a result of her injuries, according to Willard police chief Mark Holden.
Kimberly Kelly, a 48-year-old woman from New Washington, had originally been taken from the scene to Mercy Willard Hospital before being taken by a medical helicopter to Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo, where she died at 10:41 p.m., a hospital spokeswoman said.
Kelly was one of two people who died as a result of the standoff. After shooting Kelly, 19-year-old Shawn Schuett turned the .22-caliber rifle on himself, according to Holden.
Schuett was originally from Mansfield, but had moved to the Willard area about a year ago.
“The details are still sketchy at this point,” the chief said. “We still have a lot of investigating to do.”
There are four separate investigations currently being conducted by different departments, Holden said.
In addition to the overall investigation by Willard police, the Bureau of Criminal Investigation is looking into the crime scene, while the Ontario police department is investigating the negotiations — which they primarily handle — and the State Highway Patrol is investigating the SWAT aspect, which was their area of responsibility during the standoff.
“We will be doing a lot of interviews and investigations over the next few days,” Holden said. “I hope we can piece everything together fast. But it could be weeks. It’s too early to determine.”
The situation started after 5 p.m, when Schuett arrived at the Family Dollar. Holden said that police are not sure how he got to the store.
“We have two possible scenarios as to how he got there,” he said. “We will know for sure after some interviews.”
Holden confirmed that a woman was held at gunpoint outside of Family Dollar before Schuett entered the store, but was not sure if she was involved in his arrival to the store.
There may have been one customer in the store when Schuett arrived, but he let the woman leave before barricading the front doors, the chief said.
The Willard police department began receiving calls about an armed man holding two employees hostage inside of Family Dollar at about 5:18 p.m., Holden said.
“As soon as we got the call, we began calling everyone to see who could come out and help us,” he said. “We had the building surrounded within minutes.”
Police opened a line of communication with Schuett to try and find out what he wanted.
“General Tso’s chicken,” Holden said. “That is all that he asked for.”
Police obtained the Chinese dish, but Schuett never received it.
“He was not going to remove the barricades to allow us to get it to him,” Holden said. “Also, when we negotiate, we try and do a give and take. He wasn’t going to do that.”
The situation abruptly ended about 8:15 p.m. when one of the hostages ran out of the back door yelling at that Schuett was shooting, Holden said.
“As soon as that happened, the SWAT team broke out the front windows and found Schuett and one of the hostages shot in the head,” the chief said.
Police remained on the scene until about 4 a.m. collecting evidence.
At this time, no motive has been established, Holden said, adding robbery has been ruled out.
“At one point, I was talking with him on the line and told him that, if he gave up, he was only facing robbery charges,” Holden said. “He told me, ‘This isn’t a robbery at all.’”
U.S. 224 was shut down between state Route 103 and Myrtle Avenue while the standoff was occurring.

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Jon is a 2011 graduate of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. While at Calvin, Jon worked for the college newspaper, Chimes, where he was the sports editor and co-managing editor. Jon began writing for The Morning Journal in March of 2013. Reach the author at jbehm@morningjournal.com
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